Verse 12
12. Dare not Ironical, yet with a moral truth in it.
Make ourselves of the number Literally, place ourselves in line with.
Some that commend themselves This some not only commended themselves, but, by a false process, commended themselves after a low standard, as he will now show.
Measuring themselves by themselves That is, the set measured themselves by their own set; and as the standard of the whole was low, it took no great tallness to be equal or superior to the average. It requires only a little taller dwarf to overtop a set of dwarfs. Mr. Gulliver was a giant in Lilliput, but a pigmy in Brobdignag. So Dr. Johnson told Chesterfield that “he might be a wit among lords, but that he was only a lord among wits.” These Christines were moderates; held a compromise creed, and, too slow to pioneer the way into heathendom, were content to follow in the wake of others, and make themselves an eligible nest on preoccupied grounds. They prided themselves, nevertheless, in their superiority after their own standard. And, in confidence of that superiority, they disparaged whom? ST. PAUL! He will soon show them a standard! Measuring refers to greatness, or tallness, as a whole; comparing refers to special comparative excellences.
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